06/05/2015 Ukraine: Daily Highlights - The first meeting of the Constitutional Commission

The Constitutional Commission

04/06/2015 Daily Highlights by the "Digests & Analytics - Ukraine" News Agency

Topics from the Media and Social Net

• Questioning of the Communist Party leader Symonenko in the SSU.

• 13 years in jail for separatism for the "people’s" mayor of Berdyansk.
• Prosecutor of Kramatorsk arrested.
• The court released accused in the beating of MP Chornovil.
• Revelation of the terrorist, a former employee of the SSU Hodakovskiy.
• Turchinov denies conspiracy between Putin and Poroshenko.
• The first meeting of the Constitutional Commission.
• National Bank and Deloitte are working on the advent of PayPal in Ukraine.

Key Events in Ukraine

• The first meeting of the Constitutional Commission took place with the participation of the President, Prime Minister and the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada. Poroshenko said that he is ready to put to a  question of federalization to the referendum. The leader of the Crimean Tatars Chubarov insists on the right to self-determination of the Crimean Tatar nation.
• Finance Ministry proposes to index the excise tax, environmental tax and the rental fee for the radio frequency resource for inflation.
• Fluctuations in the official hryvnia exchange rate are insignificant: 23.45 UAH/USD (+0.15 UAH), 25.39 UAH/EUR (+0,15 UAH) 4.15 UAH/10 RUR (+0.04 UAH).

Kyiv Life

• Voting opened for the project of a memorial in honor of the heroes of “Heaven Hundred” of Maidan.

Ukraine at War

• ATO headquarters reported an increase of heavy shelling and attacks on the positions of the Ukrainian army. Hotspots were neighborhood of Donetsk airport and Shirokine. Video from the Ukrainian drone, published on the Internet shows the accumulation of militants heavy machinery in Donetsk, which according to the Minsk Agreement long time ago should be withdrawn from the front line.
• 16 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians captured by militants were freed. According to a statement of adviser to the head of the SBU Lubkiwski there are is still about 400 people hostage. Former President Kuchma said that the militants stopped the process of exchange. Militant Motorola’s self confession about executions of prisoners became viral on the internet.
• Unknown people tried to blow up stella with Ukrainian flag on Victory Avenue in Kharkov. In Odessa, SBU officers found a large weapons cache. Terrorist activity increases throughout the country,.

Ukraine and the World

• Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said that Ukraine is obliged to negotiate amendments to the Constitution with the Donbass "Republics". Prime Minister Yatsenyuk believes that Russia has no right to interfere in the Ukrainian constitutional process.

The Trends

• Venice Commission's do not like proposals by Poroshenko to cancel parliamentary immunity due to rampant corruption in the courts and prosecutor's office.
  Statement by the President Poroshenko on the including of representatives of "opposition bloc" in the constitutional commission, whose participation in the local elections is not opposed by the DNR and LNR and arguments about decentralization in terms of "special status" of the Donbass may indicate the influence of Russia on the amendment of the Constitution.
• After the fall of Yanukovych's oligarch Akhmetov impact on the energy industry has declined, but the main power generating capacity is still concentrated in his hands. He is trying to blackmail the government threatening by decline in coal production and require to raise the price of the purchased electricity from his companies.
  Terrorist "republics" of Donbass disconnected from the Ukrainian energy market and will not pay for electricity supplied from Ukraine, relying on the power generation facilities of Akhmetov on the territory under their control.